saintant

We are slow but a lot of that is down to the fact that players do not pick up the space between the lines and so the guy in possession is looking for non existent options to make a simple pass. The player is then forced to dwell on the ball and we become ponderous and slow to move forward. It is easily rectified but the players need intensive coaching because most of them just don't seem to get it. The good sides always have players between the lines and fizz the ball to them at pace. We plod around and either hit slow passes or lump it long.

For some reason not considered good enough for us though. I'm sure Downs will prove better value in the long run 🙂

Yes and he is clearly a good footballer. However, all our players should be well versed and capable of picking up pockets of space between the lines and looking to pass to team mates who have done so. Do none of them ever watch good sides and see what they do. Even Pompey players were far better at it than our lot.

This is one of biggest and most basic problems - can we please get a coach in who knows about playing between the lines. The reason we never found him is because the rest of the idiots are not used to and have no clue how to play between the lines. I imagine Azaz was pretty baffled and not a little frustrated to play alongside others with no basic appreciation of how the game is meant to be played. Will Still needs to get this sorted and quickly.

Me too but evidently, if they did, it needs a lot more work.

Not sure any of our players should be trying skills as advanced as a croqueta - few of them can even do the basics from what I'm seeing so keep it very simple lads.

That'll be two in two by your reckoning 🙂

This is indeed a big concern and something that needs to be addressed. Presumably Will and his coaches will be working on it intensively in training this week.

He's probably as pissed off as we are if not more so. He came here thinking and probably being told he was joining a side that will play cohesive attacking football, playing through the lines and down the wings and centre. What he found himself in the middle of today was a complete shitshow of a team that could not pass the ball and resorted to lumping it long to a small centre forward. We'll be hoping he gets better but equally he'll be hoping the team start playing proper football - if not he may as well go in January for the sake of him and us. If we buy players like Azaz let's play in a style that suits his game otherwise we may as well buy cheap rubbish and save our money.

Need a convincing performance in this. The players we have should be very capable of playing good football - a big week of training for Will Still and he must get selection, formation and tactics right - have heard too many excuses already.

Think we should have tried to offload him in the transfer window. Always strikes me as a squad disrupter and he's really pretty average/poor in midfield.

Play like today and most teams will beat us.

Obviously a strong handshake to rile Will Still - really childish thing to do.

His honeymoon period is fast running out especially after such an insipid performance today in our biggest home game of the season. He has to quickly make up his mind who his best players are and fit them into a system whereby they are able to produce cohesive football. Have to confess I thought he'd introduce all sorts of changes and clever formations but it's been tedious so far.

Do you not think the fans turned up as a collective expecting our far better players to dominate? No surprise they were stunned into relative silence by what unravelled on the pitch from the first minute. I'd be surprised if there is a single Saints fan who thought Pompey would be so dominant in that first half and we'd resort to total hoofball. A lot of that was down to Will Still.

Unfortunately we were so poor from the first minute the fans enthusiasm was gradually dampened. People simply won't cheer and singing watching the shit that was served up. Still and the side should have gone at it in the right way from minute one and the crowd would have stayed buoyant - instead it was long ball crap.

Jander was good but I didn't see enough to judge Scienza who was only on for a short time - he did draw three fouls though.

Big Les just sent off for Burnley for second yellow.

We are long suffering and I'm bored of it but is it too much to ask to see a Southampton team play simple pass and move football and get forward with pace and support. It surely is not that difficult. Had enough of watching simple passes go to our opponents and lack of any movement or urgency. Was hoping Still had some fresh ideas but yet to see them although admit it's early days but he's not inspiring me yet.

Well there was at least one a couple of minutes from time when he blocked the ball for a corner and Murphy crashed into the hoardings.

Midfielders need to drop a little deeper and find space to receive from the defenders on the deck. There are always plenty of pockets of space and even the best press cannot cover all angles but the players have to take responsibility. It almost felt today like the midfield heard Still say he wanted the ball hit long so they took the lazy option of watching long balls and consequently didn't influence the game particularly in the first half.

Agree to an extent but also Pompey did a good job with their high press and we were forced to continually go long - appreciate there should have been far more movement from the midfielders to make themselves available.

Is the Armenian chappy 20 feet tall because he'd have needed to be to get even a glancing touch of the ball particularly first half. When we did try to play on the ground a bit in the second half Azaz came into it but no midfielder can influence a game if his defenders continually launch the ball into orbit.

They didn't. What happened was that they were quite clearly and by a distance the better footballing side in that first half. We tweaked a few things and were better second half but Pompey were more than just a basic side and we needed to aspire to their level and weren't pulled down to it. We may not like them but let's not ignore what we saw on the pitch.

Because he said so when interviewed before the game. Ok, he didn't actually say he wanted every ball lumped long but we started that way and then it became difficult to actually play any controlled football because Pompey pressed us forcing us to continually pump it long.